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The Sinocism China Newsletter 11.03.13

"Sinocism is the Presidential Daily Brief for China hands"- Evan Osnos, New Yorker Correspondent and National Book Award Winner

Thanks to the nearly 300 readers who responded to Thursday’s call for support. Unfortunately that number is less than half what was needed so the newsletter will be switching from daily to weekly at the end of November.

Those of you who contributed in response to that call for support should have already received refunds. Some of you may not have seen charges to your credit cards as there was a batch of subscribers I did not process. If you have any questions or problems with charges or refunds please contact me immediately, with a reference to billing issues in the subject line, so we can get it sorted.

I have cancelled all recurring payment accounts and stopped processing any payments after October 31. For those of you who previously contributed in a lump sum, I will set up a process near the end of November to work out pro-rated refunds for those who want them.

The daily newsletter will continue until November 27 and a weekly version will debut in December. There will however be no newsletter on Monday, November 4.

Thanks to everyone for your support and I apologize for any inconvenience caused. I hope that you will all stick around for the weekly version.

I am swamped with email and so will be very slow in responding to anything but billing/refund issues. Feel free to post comments to today’s news on the Sinocism website.

Today’s Links:

THE ESSENTIAL EIGHT

Commentary: The trust fiasco of America the Eavesdropper – Xinhua | English.news.cn The U.S. debt drama features a polarized and paralyzed Washington at the helm of the world’s largest economy. As nerve-racking as it is, such irresponsible behavior is a recurrent headache economic policymakers worldwide can bear with. Yet the sole superpower’s spying saga is spicy on a heart-attack scale. It is particularly hurtful to those supposed to trust America the most — its allies. The recent cascade of eye-popping disclosures depicts a hyperactive Uncle Sam prying into others’ secrets and even eavesdropping on dozens of heads of state…As indicated in the still simmering spying scandal, the potential cost of excessive bugging could be way higher. Uncle Sam needs to remember what happened to the tailor in the Lady Godiva story — Peeping Tom was struck blind.

Global digital wars take Australia hostage-Australian Financial Review It is no small irony that the scores of intelligence operatives interviewed by the Financial Review over the past nine months repeatedly noted that early assessments of the Huawei risks were based on what agencies knew of the capabilities employed by western intelligence. “Put it this way,” one spook says, “If Huawei was run by Americans or Australians, we’d be doing what we say they are doing.”

CNN称北京10.28恐怖分子为“值得同情的对象”_网易新闻中心CCTV goes after CNN for coverage of the Oct 28 attack in Tiananmen Square//主持人：10月28号中午，恐怖分子乌斯曼、艾山等3人驾乘一辆吉普车闯入长安街的便道，故意冲撞游人和群众，造成2名游客死亡、40人受伤。案件发生之后，国内外媒体纷纷对恐怖分子的犯罪行径表示谴责。然而美国有线电视新闻网CNN却在报道中别有用心地称恐怖分子为值得同情的对象，遭到了中国网友的群起反击。

Related:Tiananmen crash: Terrorism or cry of desperation? – CNN.com given that this is allegedly the first instance that Uyghurs have carried out such desperate acts outside Xinjiang, and in this case in the very symbolic seat of central power, we may also be witnessing a sharp escalation in the Chinese state’s confrontation with the Uyghurs. In the midst of this escalation, it is also possible that the PRC’s long-maintained, but largely unsubstantiated, claims of a Uyghur terrorist threat are perhaps becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Related:Uighurs in China are fearful after Tiananmen Square attack – latimes.com Ilham Tohti, a prominent Uighur economist who works with human rights advocates, said he was getting calls from Uighurs who feared losing jobs and apartments in Beijing… Tohti disputed China’s characterization of the attackers as Islamic militants. He noted that there had been many similar outbursts by members of the ethnic Han majority, such as a man who tried to blow himself up in the Beijing airport over the summer and a string of knife attacks against schoolchildren. “Many Han Chinese resort to extreme action and harm innocent people as well to express their frustration to society,” Tohti said. “From the evidence that has been released about this family in the car, they were more like self-immolators who felt they had been wronged and wanted to release their anger.”

Related:Security official blames Tiananmen Square attack on Islamist group – latimes.com The East Turkestan Islamic Movement, named for an old Uighur name for Xinjiang, is a shadowy group that operates largely out of Afghanistan and Pakistan and is devoted to expelling the Chinese Communist Party from northwestern China. An associated group called the Turkestan Islamic Party took responsibility in 2011 for knife attacks and explosions in Xinjiang that left 40 people dead. “This movement uses extreme violence and religion to create the maximum political impact,” Pan Zhiping, a retired professor from Xinjiang University, said Friday. “My Uighur friends absolutely hate it. Many Uighurs are the victims of an event like this, which will create more misunderstandings and worse ethnic relations.” Experts say that the Uighur jihadist groups have been weakened by Pakistani military crackdowns and U.S. drone strikes, but that they remain a threat.

Related:Call Tiananmen Attack What It Was: Terrorism | China Power | The Diplomat Both Roberts and Tobin offer very insightful analysis into the complex range of problems that are likely to be behind Monday’s attack. I have lived in Xinjiang and conducted extensive research in the region, and find myself in total agreement with most of what they are saying. So what is it then, that I find so disturbing?… What is hard to understand is why the attack in Tiananmen is rarely acknowledged as an act of terrorism. Granted, we don’t – and probably never will – have access to all the details, and yet I believe we have enough material to claim that the attack was clearly intended to be deadly. The place of the attack, moreover, certainly has major symbolic value as the political center of the PRC, but it is also packed with Chinese and foreign tourists at virtually all hours. It thus isn’t just politically charged, but also in the spotlight of international observers. I find it hard to believe that both these factors weren’t part of the attackers’ calculations.

Related:Xinjiang military chief punished after Beijing attack | South China Morning Post General Peng Yong, who was named commander of the Xinjiang military region in July 2011, was dismissed from his post as a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party of Xinjiang, the Xinjiang Daily said in a terse dispatch. The state-run paper did not give a reason for Peng’s removal but it comes after last Monday’s attack in Tiananmen Square, which was a major embarrassment for the enormous state security apparatus.

中国式“竞争”_杂志频道_财新网Cover story of this week’s Caixin on the Zoomlion-Sany Heavy rivalry that has been nasty for several years, and is back in the news because of the arrest of Chen Yongzhou of The New Express newspaper // 同中联、三一过去十年快速成长相伴生的，是激烈摩擦和生死冤仇，这是一种在中国特殊土壤上滋生的、与正常竞争并不相同的可怕缠斗

Related: 【舒立观察】新闻寻租不可恕_杂志频道_财新网Hu Shuli’s editorial this week on rent-seeking by the media, spured by the arrest of Chen Yongzhou…doesn’t sound like Ms. Hu thinks Mr. Chen is innocent // 直到现在，人们还是无法得知《新快报》记者陈永洲被拘捕事件背后的全部真相。不过，始于10月22日的这起事件，在舆情的一波三折中戏剧性展开，其间所曝光的事实充满反讽却不容回避。应当承认，我们面对的是一起相当复杂的、涉嫌新闻寻租的严重事件。当前仍有一些声音，事实上在回护涉事记者和媒体。我们认为，新闻媒体身为公器，使命重大，无论现实有多艰难，新闻寻租绝不可恕。

北漂梦碎万元房：从通州到燕郊再到河北香河|房价|北漂|香河_新浪财经_新浪网Economic Observer story about a white-collar Beijing man’s quest to buy an apartment in Beijing…ends up buying in Xianghe, Hebei as only place he can afford. Friend has developed a real estate project in Xianghe, selling very well, not that far from downtown Beijing, will be even closer once light rail connected…Greater Beijing being built in real time…what did the NYC metro area, or Greater Tokyo, or Greater London look like decades ago?// 最大的难点，便是跨界带来的河北、北京利益协调问题。一位规划相关单位的知情人士表示，目前北京通州6号线、八通线在终点站朝燕郊、香河方向，都是做预留接口处理。但修地铁到香河，因对北京并无明显益处，故前者积极性不高，更大可能仍是廊坊自己出钱作线路延长。同样，京唐铁路在香河设点，主要经过河北区域的北京大七环，具体进展还要看河北的推动决心和力度。

Related:北京发明了多少种房子？已近20种 未能遏止高房价_中国快讯_南方网新闻中心interesting story on the Beijing housing market and the new real estate repression rules..Beijing has nearly 20 types of housing, many subsidized by government bodies/SOEs/military…Ren Zhiqiang suggested on Weibo that if you include the true price people paid for Beijing housing the average square meter price of Beijing housing would actually be about 1/2 what the statistics say. but of course most of that cheaper housing is only available to certain groups // 其实“自住型商品房”并不稀奇，北京的住房品种本来就琳琅满目—从早期的房改房、外销商品房、央产房、军产房，到后来的经济适用房、廉租房、两限房，一大批名目繁多的住房品种并存于普通商品房的体系之外。华远地产董事长任志强早在2005年就做过统计调查，“光北京就有十七八种，全国得有三十多种”…

China U. | The Nation Confucius Institutes at the University of Chicago and elsewhere are subsidized and supervised by the government of the People’s Republic of China. The CI program was launched by the PRC in 2004, and there are now some 400 institutes worldwide as well as an outreach program consisting of nearly 600 “Confucius classrooms” in secondary and elementary schools. In some respects, such a government-funded educational and cultural initiative is nothing new. For more than sixty years, Germany has relied on the Goethe-Institut to foster the teaching of German around the globe. But whereas the Goethe-Institut, like the British Council and the Alliance Française, is a stand-alone institution situated outside university precincts, a Confucius Institute exists as a virtually autonomous unit within the regular curriculum of the host school—for example, providing accredited courses in Chinese language in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.

Sifang Museum–Wall Street Journal interesting multimedia package from the WSJ// A Chinese entrepreneur and his son have spent a decade and a fortune to turn a forest near Nanjing into a showcase for contemporary design.

THIRD PLENUM

Ahead of third plenum, Xi assures foreigners of economic reforms | South China Morning Post “The already opened door will never be closed again,” Xi said, in a reference to the economic policies launched three decades ago under Deng Xiaoping . “The reform and opening up are a never-ending process. There will be a comprehensive plan to give overall instructions on the widely deepened reform and opening up.” Xi was meeting members of the 21st Century Council

SOE Reforms on Agenda at “Third Plenum”, Official Says -Caijing “The upcoming Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee will make new arrangements to deepen reforms of the State-owned Enterprises,” said Huang Shuhe, vice chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC). The official didn’t say what kinds of reforms there would be, but indicated that the direction should be “a departure of government functions from enterprise management and capital”. SOEs should be encouraged to introduce private and strategic investors in pushing ahead with shareholding reforms, he said, while supervision of the state-assets should be beefed up to stimulate growth of the SOEs.

What the Heck is China’s ‘Third Plenum’ and Why Should You Care? | ChinaFile Barry Naughton–The really interesting questions surrounding the Third Plenum are: Is there a clear direction for reform of local government finances? Will the Party take bold steps to reform land ownership? Will the Party move to abolish dual citizenship and give rural migrants full rights to live life as equals in the city? Will the Party boldly re-affirm the rights of private businesses and begin to scale back the privileges of state-owned monopolies?

跨越时空的改革坐标——从十一届三中全会到十八届三中全会-时政频道-新华网“Reform coordinates That Cut Across Time–From the Third Plenum of the 11th party congress to the Third Plenum of the 18th Party Congress”…long Xinhua piece out Sunday, gets a plug on the CCTV Evening News // 新华网北京１１月３日电（记者霍小光、赵超、安蓓）３５年前，发端于中国共产党十一届三中全会的改革开放，如春风吹拂大地，改变了中国，影响了世界。从那时起，执政的中国共产党在自己每届的三中全会上，以改革开放为主旋律，推出一个个事关全局宏观战略的重大决策。也正因此，在中国的政治语汇中，“三中全会”几乎成为改革开放的代名词。

Economists React: China Manufacturing up in October – China Real Time Report – WSJ The official purchasing managers’ index rose to 51.4, from 51.1 in September, and the competing poll from HSBC and Markit Economics which gives more weight to small businesses climbed to 50.9 from 50.2. Any number above 50 indicates expansion, so that looks like good news for the world’s second-largest economy. But digging through the data behind those headline figures, some analysts are less optimistic.

Opaque PBOC Fuels Transparency Call as Rates Swing: China Credit – Bloomberg “They’ve been sending out mixed signals,” said Becky Liu, a senior rate strategist at Standard Chartered Plc in Hong Kong. “On the one hand, they show a willingness to support, which means a repeat of the June crisis is definitely not happening. On the other, they actually confused markets” by allowing rates to rise.

Xi: China confident of sustainable economic growth – Xinhua Xi made the remarks as he met with a group of foreign members of the 21st Century Council in Beijing, where the global think-tank is holding a conference from Friday to Sunday focusing on the world’s second largest economy…Xi told the members of the think tank that a blueprint of comprehensive reform will be put forward at the forthcoming Third Plenary Session of the 18th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. Xi is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

[视频]【改革发展新景象】互联网思维带来了什么？_新闻频道_央视网Xiaomi gets the top of the CCTV Evening News Sunday, in segment on how “Internet thinking” is changing China’s manufacturing industries”. Lei Jun is quite the favorite entrepreneur these days, hear has been asked to spend time at the Central Party School, an honor for top entrepreneurs

CPC starts second round of inspection – Xinhua The second batch of inspectors which were divided into 10 groups have started inspections in designated organs, according to a statement publicized Sunday on the website of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The inspectors have been sent to Xinhua News Agency, Ministry of Land and Resources, Ministry of Commerce, China Three Gorges Corporation, and the provinces of Shanxi, Jilin, Anhui, Hunan, Guangdong and Yunnan, according to the statement.

郑州知名夜总会疑涉黄被大批警力包围–青海频道–人民网Cops raid and shut one of Zhengzhou’s top nightclubs. Apparently there were shocked, just shocked to discover there was prostitution in the club // 2日上午10时许，记者接连致电河南省公安厅、郑州市公安局多名内部人士了解情况，由于事发时间太短，有人已知道消息，有人还不知道。据悉，“皇家一号”夜总会长期被指涉黄，执行本次打击任务的并不是郑州警方，而是紧邻郑州的新乡警方，这肯定是河南省公安厅统一指挥行动，异地用警，显然是为了防止走漏风声。

China says will stamp out Dalai Lama’s voice in Tibet | Reuters Writing in the ruling Communist Party’s influential journal Qiushi, the latest issue of which was received by subscribers on Saturday, Tibet’s party chief Chen Quanguo said that the government would ensure only its voice is heard. “Strike hard against the reactionary propaganda of the splittists from entering Tibet,” Chen wrote in the magazine, whose name means “seeking truth”. The government will achieve this by confiscating illegal satellite dishes, increasing monitoring of online content and making sure all telephone and internet users are registered using their real names, he added. // 以敢于亮剑的精神确保西藏意识形态领域安全—— 认真学习贯彻习近平总书记在全国宣传思想工作会议上的重要讲话精神

China Opens Highway to Last Isolated County, Xinhua Says – Bloomberg China opened a highway in Tibet connecting the nation’s last county without roads to a neighboring area, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The 117-kilometer highway linking Medog county with neighboring Bome county opened to traffic yesterday, Xinhua reported. Construction of the road started in April 2009 and cost 950 million yuan ($156 million), according to Xinhua.

All in the Family – by Liz Carter | Foreign Policy In what will surely make for years of awkward dinner table conversation, the government of a suburban area of Fuzhou, the capital of coastal Fujian province, tried to force local schoolteacher Lin Xin to assist authorities in demolishing her parents’ home, according to an Oct. 28 report in the popular local paper Beijing News. Lin refused, but the consequences were disastrous. Authorities cancelled her classes for 50 days, Lin (briefly) lost her job, and her marriage ended in divorce. The news first went national on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter…Perhaps unbelievably, the coercive tactic does not appear unique. Some Weibo users reported in online debates about this story that authorities had approached them or their families in similar ways.

Premier Li meets prominent Chinese Americans – Xinhua Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with a group of Chinese Americans from the Committee of 100 Friday in Beijing, a press release from his office said Saturday. During the meeting, Li praised the efforts of the Committee of 100 to enhance the relationship between China and the United States, said the release. Stressing the significance of people-to-people exchange, Li encouraged the Chinese Americans to make efforts to help the American people understand “a true China.”

Japan, Russia agree to cooperate on security as China rises | Reuters Japan and Russia held their first joint defense and foreign ministers’ meeting on Saturday and agreed to boost security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific as they both warily watch neighboring China’s rising influence. Japan and Russia have never signed a treaty to mark the end of World War Two because of a territorial dispute but they are moving to deepen ties despite that, and despite Russian concern about Japan’s role in a U.S. missile defense program.

Daniel Sneider: The U.S. can facilitate healing between Japan and South Korea – The Washington Post Relations between U.S. allies Japan and South Korea have descended to another low, fueled by issues of wartime history and the still-poisonous legacy of Japan’s harsh colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945. The two countries’ leaders have not met since May 2012, and polls show that three times more Koreans view China favorably than Japan. A senior adviser to the Japanese prime minister recently suggested to me that the United States might no longer be given a free pass to use its bases in Japan to support South Korea in a war.

About « China Global Impact China Global Impact is an initiative of Stephen Perry, chairman of the 48 Group Club, and a small group of his close associates. Collectively, they have hundreds of years of experience working and engaging with China and its political and business leaders. They have studied the country deeply – professionally, academically and as their vocation – and have enjoyed access and insights denied to all but a few private individuals in the western world. Our core aim is to help senior executives and national policy makers understand China’

Chinese exchange student back in Milw., accepts plea deal | FOX6Now.com A victory for Milwaukee County and the Franklin Police Department on Tuesday, October 22nd. After seven years of trying to get Tim Tse back to Wisconsin, they’ve done it. Now, the plan is for him to spend the next ten years in a maximum security prison. Tse was a Chinese exchange student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Back in 2006, he was accused of sexual assault…Milwaukee County says it never expected to see Tse again — until this spring when U.S. Marshals caught up to him in Hong Kong. “They could see from a computer screen that we wanted him – did we still want him?” said Legal.

HONG KONG, MACAO AND TAIWAN

Taiwan’s top prosecutor Huang Shyh-ming indicted on leaking secrets | South China Morning Post Taiwan’s chief prosecutor was indicted on Friday for leaking confidential information to President Ma Ying-jeou about a controversial probe into influence peddling claims, officials said. Prosecutor-general Huang Shyh-ming was charged with leaking secrets relating to the probe, which is examining allegations that parliamentary speaker Wang Jin-pyng meddled in a court case implicating an opposition lawmaker.

TECH AND MEDIA

360发布“儿童卫士”手环：随时定位孩子位置|360|手环|儿童卫士_互联网_新浪科技_新浪网Qihoo launches the “Kids Defender” watch/wearable tracking device. 200 rmb plus 5 rmb/mo for the service. Brilliant, I will buy them for our kids, expect many more wearable computing devices from Qihoo…hear next area is for monitoring and tracking the elderly, huge and growing market in China

Baidu’s Qunar doubles in debut as Chinese stocks make a U.S. comeback | Reuters The number of Chinese companies listing in the United States plunged from a high of 40 in 2010 to just two in 2012 after a rash of accounting scandals and ensuing share sell-off that led to a wave of delistings. Five Chinese companies have listed on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange so far this year, including Qunar, which is controlled by Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc (BIDU.O).

Alibaba Restructures Alipay’s Parent, Jack Ma’s Share Reduced – NYTimes.com Zhejiang Alibaba E-Commerce Co Ltd will be restructured as a new company in which 60 percent of its shares will be offered to new strategic investors, Lucy Peng, head of the restructured entity, said in a letter published on its official Weibo microblog account on Friday. Ma will see his shareholding reduced from 80 percent to about 7 percent in the new company, or no greater than his shareholding in Alibaba Group, according to the letter.

Digitimes Research: China smartphone shipments dip 7.3% on quarter in 3Q13 Despite comprehensive upgrades in hardware specifications, and expectations of strong sales during the October 1 holiday season, shipments of smartphones by China-based makers declined 7.3% sequentially in the third quarter of 2013, affected by high inventory levels of low-end models in the market, according to Digitimes Research.

Speak, Memory – by Matt Sheehan | Foreign Policy While the Party has chosen to selectively forget the most gruesome excesses of the Cultural Revolution, some ordinary Chinese are pushing to reveal the gruesome and extremely personal cost of the Cultural Revolution. Using blogs, paid advertisements and television appearances, some participants in the horrific crimes of the era have begun publicly apologizing to their victims and calling on their countrymen to do the same.

The Sound of China’s Future | ChinaFile Chinese bands are not exactly strangers to SXSW, but they’re not yet the fixtures that bands from Japan and South Korea have become over the years. A “K-Pop Night Out” closed the festival this year and “Japan Nite” has been a SXSW favorite since 1996. There has been what Mirko Whitfield, SXSW International Representative, calls a “slow trickle” of Chinese participation. The Chinese bands that have landed at SXSW since 2001 have tended to be well supported by record labels, organizations that are able to get applications and travel money together with relative ease. Most bands performing at SXSW apply, and bookers look them over and decide if they are worthy of a billing.

One city, many changes: A reporter’s return trip to Zigong | Marketplace.org Life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zigong was never very peaceful. In 1996 when I came here to teach English at the local Teachers’ College, I lived next door to the music department. That building’s windows were always open, housing dozens of students who practiced their scales at all hours of the day. Seventeen years later, the music still plays: the sound of students working hard, making mistakes, and learning from them.

ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND HEALTH

Russia and China block Antarctic sanctuaries at Hobart meeting | South China Morning Post Plans to create two vast ocean sanctuaries in Antarctica to protect the pristine wilderness failed yesterday for a third time, with Russia and China blocking the bids, delegates at multi-nation talks said. The proposals for two huge marine protected areas were on the table at the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources meeting in Hobart, Australia, which brought together 24 countries and the European Union.

Kangaroo testicles a hit with Chinese | The Courier-Mail According to popular online shopping websites, China has gone nuts over the tonic which sells for between $30-$150 for a bottle of 100 capsules. In a great leap forward for the kangaroo meat industry, drought-stricken graziers hope the new trend will stiffen Chinese resolve to consume more of the Aussie icon. But Australian medical experts warn the drug, based on testosterone, is untested and without scientific data to support its claims…

Policing Chinese Politics: A History (Asia-Pacific: Culture, Politics, and Society): Michael Dutton: Amazon This detailed, empirical tale of Chinese socialist policing is, therefore, more than simply a police story. It is a parable that offers a cogent analysis of Chinese politics generally while radically redrafting our understanding of what politics is all about. Breaking away from the traditional elite modes of political analysis that focus on personalities, factions, and betrayals, and from “rational” accounts of politics and government, Dutton provides a highly original understanding of the far-reaching consequences of acts of faith and commitment in the realm of politics.

Politics in China: An Introduction: William A. Joseph: : Amazon Comprehensive and fully up to date in its coverage, Politics in China is essential not only for students studying contemporary China, but for any reader interested in learning how this rising power has evolved in recent times and the workings of its current political system

5 thoughts on “The Sinocism China Newsletter 11.03.13”

Thanks a lot, Bill, for the good work! I’m saddened that the great Sinocism Daily has gone the way of so many good online newsletters. Many years ago, we had a similar experience with a daily press review for the German weekly DIE ZEIT I contributed to, which was modeled after Scott Shuger’s legendary Today’s Papers at Slate, and which was discontinued even though it had a devoted audience because of lack of paying customers. Well, Sinocism Daily may hibernate, I’m looking forward to Sinocism Weekly. Best, Lorenz Lorenz-Meyer.

Bill, many thousands of people have so benefited from the daily Sinocism over recent years, it is a real shame on many levels that this could not be a viable business model. Thank you for all your dedicated work over the years to helping the world understand China. It is so good of you to continue this service on a weekly basis. I hope that those of your readers who can benefit from your personal consulting and speaking will find you through the newsletter.

13,000 some odd people recieve this service on a daily basis, a true shame that the “global internet community” has once again proved to be a disappointment. You can’t get everything in this world for free folks, and you certainly won’t find a more carefully curated news selection out there – a true shame for those (full disclosure, am included) that tried to keep this going a little while longer for everyone. For any of those having second thoughts about not being able to read this site daily, please send a note to Bill pledging your support – prove the CNN / Fox News consumerized news models wrong!

I just discovered this mere weeks ago, and it is a terrific compilation. I’m so sorry to see it go, and likely would have paid to read it had I noticed the funding plea Thanks much for all your effort.